I sincerely believe shopping does something for the soul. It never fails, particularly if you find an unexpected bargain. When I lucked into a fantastic leather designer jacket at 70% off, I told myself it was a sign from above. Good things were about to happen.
After I hung my beautiful new jacket in the closet, I placed the conference call to Kate and Cami. I wanted to tell them everything that happened before Nate called.
“They found what?” Cami’s voice vibrated with excitement. I could hear Kate exhale deeply in the background.
“Yep, they stuffed the boxes with nothing but packing junk, wood and metal scraps. Can you imagine? Either this whole thing was Matt’s idea—he is awfully creative and clever, you know—or Julia has more smarts than I gave her credit for.”
Kate finally said, “Or Ghost is someone to be reckoned with. Whatever it turns out to be, they pulled it off right under the noses of the Department of Justice. What should we do next?”
“Nothing. Nate said his men will do the rest and he wants us to stay out of it.”
Cami said, “And we would do that because—?”
“Because it’s the right thing to do.”
No one said a word for a few moments. Finally, Cami broke the silence by saying, “That’s not the way I see it. We really need to send another email, make it more threatening and try to set up a meeting. That should smoke Ghost out. If they agree, one of us will pretend to be Avarice-2. I’m not quite sure how we should play it yet, but we’ll figure that out.”
“But Nate said—” Beads of perspiration dampened my forehead although it was cool and comfortable in the condo. My hands shook just thinking about it. “We should—“
Kate broke in. “I agree with Cami. It’s time to turn up the heat and unmask Ghost. Don’t be such a worry wart. We’ll be careful. If it makes you feel better, I promise we’ll call in the FBI to back us up. We’ve come this far. Come on, Kimberly. Where has your spirit of adventure gone?”
“Um, deep into the back of my closet? Look you two, I’m really scared, and you know Nate is right. He said we could be charged with obstructing justice. We sure don’t need that.”
Cami’s voice was shrill.“ Hey, he wouldn’t do that to me and you know it. He’s just trying to keep us out of it. Well, we’re scared, too, and he may be right, but I can’t see us sitting back twiddling our thumbs when we’re so close. Don’t forget they wouldn’t have anything without us.”
I tried to protest one more time but Cami grew more insistent. “Look, I’ve known Nate most of my life. It’s his nature to be cautious, and he should be. After all, he’s the Attorney General. But he isn’t my boss and he isn’t yours. Let’s all agree right now. I’ll send the email to those slimeballs and forward a copy to both of you. What do you say? Killer Kate? Kimberly?”
While Kate was busy agreeing, I shouted over her, “No, I don’t agree! Listen to me. You want to get into something we have no business being involved in. We did what we could. Leave it up to the FBI.”
My heart thudded right to the floor when Cami said, “Oh, that’s just what we expected from you, Kimberly. That’s why Kate and I composed an email this afternoon. You’re too late. I just sent it. Avarice-2 has asked for the meeting already.”
“How could you? Cami, you shouldn’t have done that unless all of us agreed.”
While my head throbbed with fury, Kate did her persuasive best to calm me down. “It’s not all that bad. Look at it this way—majority rules. You know, two out of three. You’ll see. It will all work out. Ghost will have no choice but to react, and then, if they agree to the meeting, we’ve got them. I still can’t get over the junk in the cartons. I figured it would be simple embezzlement.”
Stay calm. I took a deep breath before answering. “Look, I’m not happy about this at all. It’s not the way I would have done things. Do you at least agree we should let the FBI take over now? And that Avarice-2 should be one of their people, not one of us?
Cami sounded a bit hesitant as she said, “Um, I guess that makes sense. After they lambast us for butting in, they could send one of their people to the meeting.”
Kate added, “Look, Kimberly, I’m sorry we went behind your back, but we were sure you would never agree. Am I right?”
I knew they were right. Never in a hundred years would I have agreed to the email. But it was done and there was nothing I could do about that. When I finally calmed down, I said, “It’s just too dangerous for us. As long as we don’t do anything else, I’ll forgive you for sending the email, but you have to promise not to do anything like that again. We can’t take any more ridiculous chances. Are you coming to Seattle soon?”
Cami sounded almost apologetic. “We figured once contact was made, things would move fast and they would agree to the meeting—no more than a couple of days at the longest. Of course we have to be there, so my flight gets in at 9:30 tomorrow morning and Kate’s scheduled to get in at 9:45. We’ll grab a taxi and should be at your house between 10:30 and 11:00. No need for you to pick us up. Just take the day off.”
My laptop dinged signaling that an email had arrived, so I clicked while talking and scanned it quickly, still feeling somewhat resentful at them for double-teaming me.
From: Avarice-2
To: jharrison@msn.com,Matt@hotmail.com,
ghost@aol.com
Saturday, 3:00 at Julia’s house—the one in Medina. See, I know exactly where she lives. Leave the gate open. If all three of you aren’t there, I will take action! You WILL pay the consequences. AVARICE-2
Cami wasn’t kidding when she said she would make it threatening. If I were any of them, I’d be beside myself at this point wondering who Avarice-2 would turn out to be.
I said, “Well, I just read it, and yep, they should be as shaken as a chocolate malted. Remember when this first started, one of us said something about feeling like Charlie’s Angels? I sure wish I felt brave like they were.”
“Think of it this way, Kiddo. We’ll be fine. The Angels always came out on their feet. Okay, I admit, they had to—the writers needed them for the next caper.”
Just like Kate. Always the negotiator. But it broke the icy cloud hanging over the conversation, We laughed, chatted a little longer and finally said goodbye.
• • • • •
The bell rang just before 11:00 on Friday morning. There stood Kate and Cami, each with a small suitcase and a briefcase. One of the outstanding features of my condo is the wonderful view. That day sailboats bobbed up and down on the calm water, popcorn clouds filled the sky and there wasn’t even a hint of rain in the air. We had the rest of the day and evening to work out what would happen next.
Nate had called right before I learned that the email had already been sent to give me the name and number of his contact, Agent Otto Griswold, at the local FBI office and said he would be on call for us 24/7.
I could tell how worried Nate was from the tone of his voice. I couldn’t begin to imagine how he would react if he knew about the email, and hadn’t been able to face calling him back to tell him. However, I did call Agent Griswold that morning and summoned the courage to let him know what Kate and Cami did.
Kate stood by the big picture window looking out at the lake. She turned toward us looking very determined “I think I should be the one to pose as Avarice-2. We have a stake in this. I can pull it off. They know how analytical I am, so they would believe I could be the one who unearthed their scheme. Besides, I never told you but I’m a martial arts expert. Jujitsu, kickboxing, and a bunch of other martial arts you might or might not recognize. My dad was a champion when he was stationed in Japan and he taught me and my kid sister very well.”
It seemed as though they had completely forgotten about agreeing to turn everything over to the FBI, and at that point I made no mention of the call I placed before they arrived. I let them discuss it a little longer before spoiling their fun. Call it a bit of payback.
Cami assumed a stance. “That’s impressive, Kate but I’m almost a black belt in karate and I happen to know jujitsu, too. I’ve been studying for years. Why not me?”
“Because I’m bigger than you and, well, I think I can look more threatening. I’ve won all sorts of awards, but usually don’t tell anyone. I discovered it’s a sure way to scare off a potential boyfriend. My sister and I used to beat each other up so badly when we were goofing around Dad wound up driving us to the emergency room more than once.” She shrugged. “If anything went wrong I could take care of myself. This body is a lethal weapon.”
I excused myself, went to the kitchen and poured three glasses of chardonnay. Unless I’m having a nice lunch in a restaurant I rarely drink during the day, but I needed to calm my nerves for what I was about to say.
After handing each of them a glass, I waited until we clinked, then said, “Well, neither of you is going to be a lethal weapon. You sent the email without my approval, and remember you did agree that the FBI could handle it now. Nate put me in touch with the local agent he has on the case, and when I called him this morning I told him about the email. Their person will show up for the meeting, not one of us.”
My two sidekicks stared at me in disbelief.
“You what?”
“I called in the FBI just like we agreed we would. I sort of figured you two might develop selective amnesia. This way no one will get hurt. We are not commandos, regardless of how you picture yourselves.”
“So what now?”
“Well, Agent Griswold was pretty upset that we’d gone this far. I tried to explain that you thought you were doing the right thing, but all he said was something like, “I hate working with amateurs, but at least you told me what you, and I quote, ‘you idiots’ did. One more mess to clean up.”
“And—”
And he wants to meet us at his office this afternoon.